When tidying up my desk I found this scribbled note that I had made
some time ago: “The question should be why do you continue to use
animal products (eat meat, milk, etc.), not why am I vegan. Animal
users should keep asking themselves that every moment – even if it
makes them angry and vengeful toward vegans who ask them the
question.”

To further expand on this note that I had quickly jotted down: Why
should vegans have to explain themselves or “be put on a spot” when they
are not the ones doing the damage? Vegans should turn the question on
the one asking; after all, the ones complicit in the use and abuse of
other animals owe us an explanation for their behavior, not the other
way around.

There is overwhelming proof of the damage done to humans, other
animals, and the earth by the herding (hurting?) culture that began ten
thousand years ago. Why do humans cling so stubbornly to a lifestyle
that is destructive to themselves and to the ones they claim to love?

A careful study of the history of pandemic viral infections points
directly to the introduction of animal agriculture and the eating of
animals as the source. The close confinement of animals breeds diseases
such as the much publicized avian flu. Yet humans merely take stopgap
measures when confronted by such catastrophic events of their own
making: They fuss about the availability of inoculations and they trash
millions of animals to “contain” the spread of the disease.

How many people are aware of the destruction to the environment by
the huge volume of methane gas and excrement produced by the industrial
factory farming of animals that is rapidly spreading around the world?
Even fish are being “farmed”! Yet, little if anything is mentioned in
the news about these things because sponsors control the purse strings
and the media are beholden to the fast food companies and the
pharmaceutical industry, for example, as any casual observer can see.

"Joyful Curmudgeon"
An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful. At the
same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the
world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true
peace and compassion.